Penguins that are purple?

What kind of nation world do we live in that children, whether male or female, must be referred to as purple penguins by their educators?  The educators of young children in Nebraska cannot say, "boys and girls" or, "ladies and gentlemen" because it might offend them? These are 5 to 18 year olds we are talking about! They are minors by law, they cannot medicate themselves, fly on airplanes, buy permanent markers and the list goes on. A few things that they (we) can do get abortions on our own and choose what gender we are with out parental permission. By the way can someone please fill me in on how I can one day be a teenage girl and the next a teenage guy? I think (yes actually think) that while we are not always happy being the gender that we are, for whatever hard and uncomfortable things that we may have to go through as humans, just imagine how much harder and more uncomfortable it would be to switch all of the hormones in your body for that of the opposite gender? 

Now back to the article that I read, it says that educators should "stop referring to students by “gendered expressions” such as “boys and girls,” and use “gender inclusive” ones such as “purple penguins” instead." The document that the article talks about says that instead of having the children line up as boys and girls to "suggest[s] asking them to line up by whether they prefer “skateboards or bikes/milk or juice/dogs or cats/summer or winter/talking or listening.”" Really? I guess that everything that I learned along with everything that my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on learned is just a bunch of baloney, sorry but if that offended baloney then that right there should prove to you how messed up this world is.  

"If teachers still find it “necessary” to mention that genders exist at all, the document states, they must list them as “boy, girl, both or neither.”"

Wait, now there is no such thing as gender? Well I guess that if we don't know what gender we are and if we can switch genders whenever and however we want then why even have genders to begin with?  And since we, as a nation no longer recognize gender then we should probably inform the children purple penguins, who are the next generation, that they cannot refer to each other as he, she, her, him or their possessions as his or hers right? Furthermore, it instructs teachers to interfere and interrupt if they ever hear a student talking about gender in terms of “boys and girls” so the student can learn that this is wrong. “ “Point out and inquire when you hear others referencing gender in a binary manner,” it states. “Ask things like . . . ‘What makes you say that? I think of it a little differently.’ Provide counter-narratives that challenge students to think more expansively about their notions of gender.”

In that case all arguments that are made by men are the same as all arguments made by women on any topic including abortion, or is that just to logical? 

Dehumanization

Dehumanization-defined- simply put is treating a human being as if they were not human. How often does this happen? Some may think that it is a very rare occurrence. This is WRONG, it happens all of the time, in fact it never stops happening.

I will first cover one of the most obvious ways that we dehumanize people-abortion. Simply, a lot of people know that they are killing a baby but they use terms like fetus or say that it is just a clump of cells. Because truth be told if they said that it was a baby then they would be admitting not only to the woman that have the abortions, but to themselves that they are killing a human person. How many people do you know that can live with themselves after knowingly murdering a person? My guess is none. Also if abortion mill workers said that the baby was a baby then how many less abortions would there be? How many fewer abortion mills would there be?

Another way that we dehumanize is when we judge people by what they look like. Everyone does it. We all have a tendency come up with who we think a person is by what they look like before we even know who they are. If we see someone with a fancy car or expensive clothes most of the time we place them in a group of people who think that they are too good for us or are snobby. When in reality they could be very generous people who got there clothes at a thrift store to save money or they are just borrowing a car from someone because they don't have one available to them. We also tend to place people who have messy clothes and messed up hair and dirty skin in a lower class then even ourselves when they could have just finished helping someone fix their yard or paint their house. The thing is that we don't know there story or reasoning for something yet we look at them and push them down, sometimes unknowingly, so that we can build ourselves up. We forget to think of them as humans.

The final way that I am going to mention is teen pregnancies. Think about it, here we are as pro-lifers (disclaimer-not all people do this) and when we see a pregnant teen at the mall or walking down the street we automatically think of them as a bad person for getting pregnant in the first place. But did you ever stop and think to yourself that maybe it wasn't there fault and event if it was then at least they didn't have an abortion. At least they kept the baby and did't kill it. I think that a lot of teens get abortions because they are afraid of what others will think of them for being pregnant. We should show them a little support, they are human and make mistakes just like us.

There are so many ways that we dehumanize people that I am not even going to try to cover them all. Can I make a suggestion? Why don't we all try, when we see a person, to think of them as a person and not judge them for what they look like. It is a very hard thing to do but I personally am working on it because I am pro-life and pro-lifers, who are also human, are supposed to stand up for life from conception to natural death. And that means that we respect and care for all humans whether they are in the right or in the wrong.

The meaning of love

I love like the movie Frozen that Disney made. Olaf is one of my favorite characters. 

He is a cute snowman that Elsa and Anna made when they were little, and he comes to life later on when they are older. His greatest wish is to be in summer and he likes warm hugs, "Hi I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" During the course of the movie he teaches Anna what love really is. He says, "Love is putting someone else's needs before yours." This is such a true statement. In today's society love is portrayed as an emotion and the word is thrown around more often then even the word "like". 

Last summer my friend Kathleen and I did an experiment to see which one of us said "like" unnecessarily, more often. at first it was hard to catch ourselves and the other person but by the second day we did a pretty good job of telling the other person when they said "like". What we found out was that we both said "like" all of the time and when we were thinking about it it was hard for us to come up with a word to replace it or to even stop ourselves from saying "like".  

My point is that between the two of us we miss-used the word "like" like all of the time, and we still sometimes do. The thing is "love" is miss-used EVEN more often. we often say that we "love" a movie or "love" an object. When the truth is that you can ONLY love people! We also miss-use it when we say that we are so "in love" with a boyfriend or girlfriend. Are you really "in love" or do you just really like them? And if you are "in love" then that means that you are willing to do ANYTHING for that person, even die for them. 

*Spoiler*


At the end of the movie when Elsa is about to be killed by Hans, and Anna is running towards Kristoff (half frozen) for an act of true love (that will thaw her and save her life), Anna, hearing her sister crying, turns away from Kristoff and runs to protect her sister from harm, in turn she ends to solid ice. She was willing to risk her life to protect her sister. Because of her act of true love towards her sister Anna's frozen heart is thawed and she returns to normal. 

In the past if Disney has taught us anything at all from their princess movies is that you will "fall in love" and live happily ever after. But I like this Disney Princess movie because it actually tells you the true meaning of love. 

And just in case you missed it, when you love someone you are willing to do anything for them, including die for them.

Birthdays

Your birthday is a day that you look forward to every year. It is a day when friends and family think of you and wish you a happy birthday, there is more or less a feeling of being special and important. Everyone has a birthday it does not seem like a rare thing. You can walk up to a random person and ask them if they have a birthday and I bet that they will look at you like you are crazy and tell you that of course they have a birthday, who doesn't? But I am here to tell you that there are a LOT of people who do NOT have birthdays or whose birthdays are forgotten, and even worse most of them are little kids! The thing that keeps little human beings from having a birthday, even there very first one, is abortion and contraception (and yes, contraception can be an abortifacient).  Some kids, who do have birthdays, have their birthdays forgotten. Some who are in abusive homes are beaten for even having a birthday. Most people look forward to their birthday and the things that they will be able to do. When you turn 13 you become a teenager, 15 (in Texas) you get your drivers permit, 16 (also in Texas) you can legally drive on your own, 18 you are an adult, 21 (in the U.S.A) you can legally drink, and so on. every year there is more freedom and (hopefully) joy because you are older. In a way I for one have taken advantage of my birthday, and I'm sure that many others have as well, How many people go to their mom and tell her thank you on your birthday? You wouldn't have one without her.  For my birthday (this Monday) I will not take advantage of it. I am so glade that I have a birthday and that my mom chose life for me even though I was born after Roe Vs. Wade. So, thank you mom! Thank you for choosing to keep me and not legally (or illegally) aborting me! I am going to ask that everyone, when you are done reading this, to go and thank your mom (and dad) for choosing life for you! Know that you are BLESSED to be here, especially if you were born after 1973. 

March For Life Washington, D.C.

Hello, I mentioned previously that I won an essay contest to go to the march for life in Washington, D.C. and I will say that I had an amazing time! On the flight home I had three hours of basically nothing to do. At first I was sitting next to a complete stranger and I put in my headphones (that were only allowed to be used if we were not sitting next to someone in our group) and tuned out and fell asleep. Then once in the air, after my first nap of the flight, my good friend Aniya kindly asked if the guy would mind switching seats with her. He didn't seem to mind since he was only listening to music anyway so we got to sit next to each other for the rest of the flight. There was however about 2 full minuets that I had all three chairs to myself...Anyway since it was late at night and both Aniya and I were tired we listed to music on my phone (yes I guess we technically broke the rules but I am pretty sure Mrs. Laux would understand :) ). So again we were just listening to music and I was kind of bored so I started typing on my phone all that I could think of that we did on the trip and it goes a little like this...

1-22-14
I am currently on the airplane from Washington DC to DFW airport. It is 8pm Dallas time and we will not land for about an hour(and yes several of use calculated it...don't judge we are all very tired...). All of us from the Youth for Life Fort Worth Diocese will defiantly has some awesome memories. We flew into Washington DC last Sunday morning. Then Sunday evening we went an toured the national monuments. It was awesome! We took monument selfies and group selfies and monument selfies....(it was our thing...).

A very bad selfie with the Lincoln monument

Then went to the hotel for hot coco and cookies. We went up to our rooms (four to a room) and unpacked and pulled out our layers for the next day.

Monday morning we bundled up and got on the metro and went to the replica of the holy lands. When we got there we ate our sack lunches and walked around the gift shop. I got something for everyone in my family. Then we went on a tour of the monastery. Lauren her boyfriend Josh and her friends Anna Marie and Janeth met up with us and went on the tour. It was a really beautiful church and catacombs. Laurens friends are really funny. Janeth even climbed into one of the bunk bed thingies and I got a picture.

Janeth in the bunk bed catacomb replica 

And Annamarie was very excited about everything! It was really nice to get to meet them :). After the tour they went to the gift shop and we started to leave then Lauren texted me and asked me to come get something from her for the family. She got us a little pope Francis statue. It is really cute! After we went to the poor Clair's convent for adoration. Then we walked a long way back to the metro. We took the metro to the back of the White House and took lots of pictures.

Group selfie behind the White House.

Some of us were standing on a curb thing next to the fence of the white house and I got pushed onto the boys in front of me. After a million and one selfies and pictures we went to pray at planned parenthood. When we got there there was one other group and they were praying the rosary so we joined in with them. After they left we prayed the chaplet of divine mercy and the started another rosary. By the end of our rosary there were at least five other groups there. We were lined up all of the way down the street!!! It was soooooo amazing!!!

This is not even everyone!

Then we went back to the hotel and had dinner night prayer and games. On Tuesday it snowed!!! It was fluffy and cold and awesome!!

We went to the natural history museum and the air and space museum and met up with Kathleen!!!! We hung out and semi caught up for about an hour and a half.

Group selfie with Kathleen :)

Then we went to the basilica for mass. We sat on the floor to the side of the alter it was a good 45min profession of seminarians, Deacons, priests, bishops, arch bishops, and cardinals. Then we had the most normal mass you could with those standards. Mass started at 6:30pm and ended at 9:30ish pm.

Laying on the floor of the Basilica

Then we met up with Bishop-Elect Olson (for Fort Worth) and took pictures and talked to him and I got a selfie with him:) !!!!!!

Then we went back to the hotel and to bed. And today we got up at 7am and packed and made lunches then went to the youth rally/mass and then to the march for life.

Youth rally (only what was directly in front of me I was really close to the front)

There was still snow on the ground and it was really windy and cold. We marched for a few hours and my feet from and got stepped on.

I got just a few of the many people there in a picture.

Before we started marching we met up with everyone from the Fort Worth diocese and Totus Tuus (our homeschool youth group) plus some surrounded Zowey like she was the president just to keep warm. I also bought a march for life T-shirt. After the march we went back to the hotel to get our luggage and eat some snacks then we left for the air port on the metro. Then we waited and ate dinner then got on the plane. We are going to land soon (hopefully) it is 8:35pm now.

After we landed there was a good sized crowed of parents and siblings waiting for us. After saying hi to them and giving hugs we went around and of course took more pictures and selfies as if we had forgotten to take them on the trip :). It was a truly amazing trip and I cannot wait until I can go next year! (But hopefully it will be in rejoicing that abortion has ended instead of the reminder that it will be 2 years since Roe Vs. Wade.).

-Your Pro-Life Teen Blogger :)

What if

This is a thought that came to me.

Shoes

Some of you may wonder, "what do shoes have to do with pro-life?" Well, what if someone is not looking at your face but is looking at your shoes? Then they can still see that you are pro-life. ;)